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The extent to which Iran knew about, or helped with, the 7 October Hamas attack on Israel remains a point of conjecture. Some were quick to point the finger of suspicion at the Tehran regime, which is undoubtedly a major supplier of military materiel to Hamas and the driving force behind the 'Axis of Resistance' that is now confronting Israel.

Saudi Arabia announced that it would bid to host the 2034 Fifa World Cup, soon after football’s world governing body had set out the timetable for the process. It faces a rival bid from Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. 

Emirati Sheikh Mohammed Bin Saqr Bin Hamad Al-Qasimi was promoted to the role of chairman of the Labour Standards Development Authority (LSDA) in a decree issued by Sharjah Ruler Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammad Al-Qasimi early October.

The recent decision by Iraq's Constitutional Court to annul a 2013 law that regulated the use of the Khor Abdullah waterway shared with Kuwait has continued to cause diplomatic waves, with Kuwait rallying its international friends and partners to put pressure on Baghdad over the decision. 

Amini death anniversary: Iran marked the first anniversary of the death in custody of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini on 16 September. Her death  had sparked widespread protests across the Islamic republic, which were eventually suppressed by the authorities. In the run-up, the authorities had launched a concerted effort to dissuade anyone from marking the anniversary, although some protests still went ahead.

A normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia appears to be closer than ever – even though most commentators had long assumed it could not happen while King Salman Bin Abdelaziz was alive. Riyadh seems intent on extracting far more concessions in any deal than the UAE or Bahrain managed with their Abraham Accords, but it remains to be seen if all sides will be able to find a workable compromise.

Global and regional powers have drawn up a series of plans to develop new trade corridors through Gulf countries over recent years, with the latest emerging at the G20 summit in India which will pass through the UAE, Saudi Arabia and on to Jordan and Israel. The ambitious plan could take decades to realise and will face competition from rival schemes backed by Iran, Iraq, Russia and Turkey. 

Conservative tribal and Islamist voices are increasing their power and influence in the Kuwaiti political arena, with the government providing tacit support to their growing dominance over liberal and urban merchant figures.

Baghdad claims to have disarmed and moved Iranian Kurdish exiles from the border area with Iran, but the reality is that compliance has been more limited, meaning further Iranian military strikes on the area are a distinct possibility.

Fresh fighting over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region in September has left Azerbaijan empowered and it could now try to realise long-held ambitions to create a land route through Armenia to its Nakhichevan exclave. For Iran, this could mean a de facto end to its own border with Armenia and a sometimes-hostile neighbour stretching across its northwest frontier.

With Kuwait's emir regularly out of the country to receive medical treatment, Crown Prince Mishaal Al-Ahmed is overseeing a fragile political system in which ministerial resignations are almost as frequent as clashes between parliament and the executive, and deteriorating public services are undermining public confidence. Inertia and dysfunction have led Kuwait to fall behind its wealthy neighbours to the south, with medicine shortages just the latest indication of an unhappy direction of travel which adds to pressures for an eventual revised social compact to avoid even greater troubles. 

Inmates at Bahrain's Jau Central Prison halted their hunger strike on the evening of 11 September, amid the deteriorating health of some inmates and a pledge by the authorities to improve conditions within two weeks. More than 800 prisoners had joined the protest, which began on 7 August.

Some $6bn of Iranian funds that have been frozen in South Korea are expected to be sent to Qatari banks in the coming days, prompting the release of five US citizens held in Iran and the same number of Iranians in American prisons.

A senior Iranian security official has threatened to resume bombing of targets in northern Iraq if Baghdad fails to meet a 19 September deadline to halt cross-border attacks by exiled Iranian Kurdish opposition groups.

A total of 309 candidates are competing in elections for the Federal National Council (FNC), the UAE's nearest equivalent to a parliament – fewer than in any of the previous four election cycles and significantly less than the 478 people who stood in 2019.